


Downtime

by RadioactiveDeLorean



Series: Redemption [2]
Category: The LEGO Movie (2014)
Genre: BECAUSE ITS GOOD AND YOU'RE ALL COWARDS, Bad Cop needs to get his shit together, Emmet plays Minecraft it's canon, Emmet you're not fooling anyone, Light Angst, PLEASE JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER, Sort of pining?, early stages of a relationship, these two (three) need to have a talk honestly, they both like pineapple on pizza
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 10:07:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17242304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RadioactiveDeLorean/pseuds/RadioactiveDeLorean
Summary: Emmet and Bad Cop chat over pizza, and Bad Cop realises Emmet isn't as popular as he seems.





	Downtime

**Author's Note:**

> In here just before 2019 even though this has been a WIP for months now. I finally managed to kick my ass into gear and finish this. The bit about why two souls exist in one body is (mostly) scientifically accurate in terms of the fact that two embryos in a womb can merge during an early stage to form only one offspring. I figured that provided a great scientific reason for why Good Cop and Bad Cop are physically the same person.

The two police officers had been living with Emmet for a few days now, but their new accommodation had done little, if anything, to help assure them that Emmet trusted them and that they could trust Emmet in return. Sure, he’d brought them out of that filthy house in the park, but that didn’t mean that Emmet wasn’t planning on humiliating them or punishing them for what they did to the universe. Good Cop repetitively tried to convince his brother that Emmet didn’t have a mean bone in his body, but Bad Cop’s insecurities kept him from believing him.

So far, Good Cop had only ever taken over when the cops had been alone, either lying awake in the middle of the night or when Emmet had gone out, be it for work, grocery shopping or anything else. Every time Emmet was awake and around in the apartment, Bad Cop had been the one in charge. His brother was still terrified of being the one in control. After what Business had done to him after Good Cop had refused to use the Kragle on their parents, the shyer of the brothers had hidden away constantly, leaving Bad Cop with no choice but to take the reins.

Bad Cop was still furious over what had happened to his brother. He blamed himself. He hated that he’d been too weak and too scared to fight Business off himself. He’d been so terrified of getting hurt himself for refusing Business’ orders that he’d let his brother suffer in his place. He’d let his parents fall victim to the Kragle, and he’d let his brother be hurt. The guilt weighed heavily down on his shoulders, making him feel sick every time he was reminded of what he’d allowed to happen.

He did his best to keep it hidden from Emmet any time the construction worker was around. He didn’t want to show any weakness in front of him, knowing that Emmet would surely see him as pathetic. He wouldn’t be able to handle the sympathetic, sorry looks he was certain he’d receive from the Special if he even so much as _mentioned_ what was going on inside his head. When the cops were alone, however, it was easy to let the mask drop. Good Cop spent pretty much all his time listening to Bad Cop’s thoughts anyway; it hardly mattered if Good Cop found out just how his brother felt.

Good Cop was, of course, concerned when he realised just how guilty his brother felt about what had happened. He did his best to try and comfort Bad Cop, but sometimes things just got too much. Sometimes, nothing he said could pull Bad Cop out of the guilty hole he’d dug for himself, and he was forced to wait until Bad Cop calmed down, which often took hours. Most of the time, it was when Emmet was at work, so they had the place to themselves. Bad Cop would tug at his hair, scream and sob into a pillow or his hands, get absolutely smashed from whatever alcohol he could get his hands on, and at his worst moments, grab one of the kitchen knives and hold the blade to his throat. Whenever it looked like Bad Cop was going to try to hurt himself, Good Cop had to force his way into control until his brother eventually relented, retreating to the back of their shared mind to get through the rest of each episode.

Things were completely different when Emmet was around. The walls were thrown back up again, allowing Good Cop to hide away. Bad Cop tried to keep up his stern, cold exterior the best he could whenever Emmet was around. Bad Cop had always been the more cold and calculating of the pair, and he was determined to at least keep _some_ of that stern exterior. His brother had yet to actually talk to Emmet. Good Cop was clearly terrified of taking control, despite how calm and welcoming the construction worker was being to the two cops now residing in his spare room. Emmet had assured the pair numerous times that he wasn’t going to hurt them, that he was going to help them, but their past experiences had the cops reluctant to believe him.

Bad Cop debated bringing it up over dinner one day. He figured he should explain why his brother wasn’t around whenever Emmet was, but Good Cop always told him not to say anything. What if Emmet took it as the brothers not trusting him, or being ungrateful, and kicked them out? What if he thought it was because Bad Cop refused to let his guard down, possibly waiting for a moment to strike out at the construction worker? What if he pressed for answers as to why Good Cop was so scared? Both officers knew they’d be unable to explain themselves if Emmet started asking why Good Cop was so scared.

They had never planned on bringing it up, and they were both pretty happy with the idea of just keeping it a secret for the rest of their lives. They weren’t going to even _mention_ it, not until Emmet brought it up at dinner one evening.

“So,” Emmet began sheepishly, swallowing a mouthful of takeaway pizza. “What happened to… y’know, the other guy? I haven’t seen him at all so far…”  
  
Bad Cop was startled so badly he started choking on his pizza. Once he’d eventually dislodged the food from his trachea and got it going down his oesophagus instead, he shot a stunned look over at the construction worker. “He’s been out, he’s just … been out when ye’ve been away.”   
  
“O-oh…” Emmet frowned. “How come? I mean, I’ve talked to him before, so why won’t he talk to me now?”   
  
_Don’t tell him!_ Good Cop hissed. _He’ll think it’s cause we don’t trust him!_   
  
“He’s just shy, is all,” Bad Cop shrugged, taking another bite of his pizza and cursing to himself as he got cheese on his fingers. “He’s still kinda shaken up over what happened.”   
  
Bad! Don’t!

“What _did_ happen?” Emmet pressed gently, wiping his mouth on a napkin. “I mean, like, what did Business do to you guys?”   
  
“Doesn’t matter,” Bad Cop said hurriedly.

Emmet frowned at that. “... you don’t trust me, do you?” he asked softly, his gaze dropping to the table.

Bad Cop stammered a little bit. “I - of course we do, it’s just …”  
  
“No, it’s okay, I don’t blame you,” Emmet looked up. He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “After everything you guys went through, I really don’t blame you for not trusting me. A lot of people don’t.”   
  
Bad Cop looked sceptical at that. “Why not?”   
  
Emmet shrugged nonchalantly. He picked a slice of pepperoni off his pizza and popped it into his mouth. “Dunno, a lot of people don’t really talk to me, so I guess there’s no reason why they _should_ trust me.”   
  
Bad Cop frowned. “Whaddya mean people don’t talk to ya?”   
  
Emmet shrugged again. “I mean, people ask me stuff all the time, but it’s never about _me,_ y’know? It’s just about what I did, or what happened with that whole TAKOS Tuesday mess. It’s never about if I watched the game last night, or what my favourite food is, or anything personal. They don’t care about Emmet Brickowski. They just care about the Special. ‘Cause, I mean, he’s the hero, right? He’s the guy everyone loves. Not the little construction worker who pays the bills. Being a hero doesn’t put food on the table, but nobody cares about that, do they?”   
  
Bad Cop sat in silence for a few moments, trying to wrap his head around everything that Emmet had just said. Everywhere he’d looked, Emmet seemed like the most popular guy in Bricksburg. Everyone seemed to want to talk to him, to congratulate him, to get photos with him. Yet here Emmet was, sitting and saying that nobody really cared about him. That couldn’t possibly be true, could it? “What about that lass ye were hangin’ out with?”

“Who, Lucy?” Emmet looked up. “Oh, she still checks up on me sometimes, but not that often.”  
  
“I could’a sworn you two were a thing,” Bad Cop said with a slight smirk. “Ya certainly seemed ta be.”   
  
Emmet blushed at that, glancing away. “Nah, not really. I mean, it kinda was that way for a little bit, but uh - she’s not really my type, y’know? She’s cool and all, and like, really smart and funny, but uh … yeah.”   
  
“Not your type, huh? Lemme guess, you want a girl who’s a little more laid back?”   
  
Emmet coughed and took another bite of pizza. “Something like that, yeah. What about you guys?”   
  
It was Bad Cop’s turn to blush. “Oh, well ya see, me brother and I have never really gotten that far with anyone.”   
  
“You haven’t?!” Emmet sounded far more surprised than he intended to. He cleared his throat and corrected himself. “I mean, uh, you haven’t?”   
  
“Nope.” Bad Cop shook his head. “Our job left us surrounded by robots day in, day out, and before then it was kinda hard to meet someone who didn’t immediately freak out when they found out about the elephant in the room. Y’know, the whole “there’s two of us” thing.”   
  
“Oh,” Emmet frowned. “That stinks. I’m… I’m sorry.”   
  
Bad Cop shrugged. “Just part of being us, I guess.”   
  
“So uh, how did you guys come to be, if you don’t mind me asking?” Emmet asked softly.

Bad Cop blinked. “Ya mean, how were we born?”  
  
Emmet turned scarlet. “No, no, I know that bit!” He stammered. “I - I mean how come there’s two of you stuck in one body?”   
  
“Should’a guessed that was what ye meant,” Bad Cop chuckled. “Well, when me brother and I were in our mum’s womb, we were originally gonna be twins. But when we were jus’ little balls of cells, one of us kinda started to join to the other? As if we were two bubbles of air that fused to make one, y’know? Anyway, instead’a bein’ two separate bodies, we ended up as one clump of cells, but I guess both our minds sort’a survived? So we’re kinda like two souls stuck in one body?”   
  
“No way…” Emmet murmured, awestruck. “That’s gotta be _insanely_ rare, right?!”   
  
“We’re the only ones we know of that are like us, so I’d imagine so, yeah,” Bad Cop replied with a nod. “You’re not… freaked out by this?”   
  
“Why would I be?” Emmet grinned. “That’s like, so cool! You’re kinda like a two-for-one deal, right?”   
  
“Two-for-one?” Bad Cop chuckled.   
  
Emmet immediately turned scarlet, choking on his food again. “Oh man, that sounded so stupid! I - I’m sorry!” He spluttered between coughs.

Bad Cop couldn’t help but laugh. “No way, I think that’s a pretty cool way of describing it.”  
  
“You - you do?” The construction worker asked tentatively, his face red from a mixture of embarrassment and choking.

“Yeah, that’d make a great bio for a dating site profile, huh?” Bad Cop smirked.   
  
Emmet just spluttered at that. After a moment or two, he let out a quiet giggle. “Guess it would, wouldn’t it?”   
  
The officer nodded with a grin. “We gotta get that written on a badge sometime.”   
  
Emmet snorted in amusement. “Or just steal one of those special offer signs from the supermarket?”   
  
“Whichever is easier,” Bad Cop chuckled.   
  
Emmet grinned. “So, speaking of dating…”   
  
Bad Cop raised an eyebrow with a sceptical look. “What are ye getting at, lad?”   
  
“What sort of personality traits do you look for in a partner?”   
  
“Well, we don’t have much experience when it comes ta relationships, but good, strong morals would definitely be one thing ta look fer,” Bad Cop explained, taking another bite of pizza. “A good sense of humour would be another.”   
  
“What about like - wait nevermind,” Emmet mumbled with a blush. “That’s like, way too personal.”   
  
“Oh no, c’mon now you’ve made us curious,” Bad Cop smirked. “Spit it out.”   
  
“What like, um, what gender do you guys go for?”   
  
This time, Bad Cop was the one blushing. “Well, ah, ye weren’t wrong about that bein’ personal.”   
  
Emmet turned scarlet. “Oh, Man Upstairs I’m so sorry! You really don’t have to answer that one!”   
  
“Nah, it’s okay lad,” Bad Cop coughed, taking a sip of his drink. “It’s natural ta be curious. Me brother and I aren’t too fussed over the gender of our partner, which I guess would make us bisexual? But uh, we’ve found ourselves with a preference towards other guys.”   
  
“Oh, uh, cool,” Emmet replied somewhat sheepishly, a deep pink still present on his face.   
  
“Well? What about yerself?” Bad Cop asked quietly.

“I - I’m, um…” Emmet stared at his food, trying to think of the right words. “I guess I don’t really know what I am. I never really interacted with enough people to figure out who I was attracted to. But uh, I guess it wasn’t Lucy,” he joked weakly.

“Ah, don’t worry lad, ye’ll figure it out eventually. These things take a lot of time, y’know,” Bad Cop assured him as he finished off his pizza, shoving the box containing the last slice towards the construction worker. “Go on, ya bought it, ye should be the one ta finish it.”  
  
“You guys can have it if you want, I’m full,” Emmet replied, shoving the box back over.

“Are ye sure?” Bad Cop’s hand was already halfway towards the slice.   
  
“I’m sure; if I eat any more, I’ll be sick.”   
  
Bad Cop chuckled and took the last slice. As he ate, Emmet piled the rest of the trash into the empty pizza box and pushed it aside. After the officer had finished, he wiped his mouth on a napkin before going to wash the pizza grease off his fingers in the kitchen sink. “As much as me brother and I love pizza, the worst part is the mess it makes.”   
  
“You’re telling me,” Emmet chuckled, waiting beside the sink to do the same. “I once tried to bite into a slice of Hawaiian pizza without holding it properly and half the pineapple ended up on my shirt.”   
  
“Wait, ye like pineapple on yer pizza too?!” Bad Cop grinned. “Finally, a man of good tastes.”   
  
Emmet just laughed at that. “I don’t see what’s wrong with it, or why so many people hate it. It’s so good!”   
  
“Well, it seems that few are as cultured as we are,” Bad Cop smirked as he dried off his hands, moving aside to allow Emmet to wash his own hands.   
  
Emmet just chuckled as he scrubbed the cheese and grease off his hands with plenty of soap. “So asides from like, eating pizza and hiding in old abandoned bungalows, what do you guys enjoy doing?”   
  
“Geeze, I can hardly remember,” Bad Cop sighed. “It’s been so long since either of us had any leisure time. Workin’ fer Business was a full-time job with plenty of unpaid overtime, so usually me brother and I would just crash in bed immediately after work.” 

“Aw man, that sucks. I’m sorry,” Emmet frowned, hanging the towel back up on the rack once his hands were dry. “Well, I’ve got a few video games you guys could try if you wanted to?”  
  
“What kinds of video games?” The officer perked up a little bit at that.

“Well, I’ve got a few racing games, and this really cool building and like, resource management game I play all the time. C’mon, I’ll show you!” Emmet took Bad Cop’s arm and all but dragged him into the living room, getting him sat down on the couch before going to fetch the console remotes.

Bad Cop couldn’t hide the smirk of amusement as he watched Emmet rummage around through a box on the shelf below the television for the remotes for his video game console. When he saw Emmet pause and frown, only one remote in his hand, he shuffled forward a little bit. “Lad? What’s up?”  
  
“I, er, I only have the one remote,” Emmet replied meekly as he stood up, going over to the couch and handing Bad Cop the single, solitary remote. “I never have anyone over to play with, so I never bothered buying a spare remote.”   
  
“That’s alright, why don’t ye play for a little while and I can watch, then we can switch over later?”   
  
“Okay,” Emmet nodded, firing up the console and getting comfortable on the sofa. “This game happens to be my favourite.”   
  
“What’s it called?” Bad Cop asked curiously.

“‘Craft and Mine’,” Emmet replied. “There are loads of different ways to play the game. Some people set the game mode to like, super difficult, so there’s loads of monsters and stuff that appear and try and kill you, and you have to try and gather supplies, build a shelter and make enough tools to survive. I tend to prefer setting the game mode to really easy and just see what kinds of stuff I can build with what I find. There’s an option to make it so that you have unlimited resources of every kind and you can do whatever you want, but I think that’s cheating.”  
  
“That does sound rather lenient,” Bad Cop nodded as he watched the loading screen appear on the television. Emmet started a new game file and set his preferences on the options menu, before sitting back to wait as the game generated a new world. When the game started, Emmet found himself in the middle of a huge expanse of snow, a cluster of small mountains off to the far south and a line of dark green trees near the west.

“Is everything meant to be made up of all those blocks?” Bad Cop asked as Emmet started to explore the landscape.

“Yep, it’s the way the game is designed,” the construction worker nodded, setting off for one of the mountains. “I think it looks really cool, and it’s like super unique.”  
  
“I’d have ta agree with ye there lad.” Bad Cop nodded, watching in mild interest as Emmet started climbing up the side of the mountain. On the way up, he came across what Emmet informed him to be wolves, a few cows and the odd sheep or two.

The music in this game, Bad Cop had to admit, was incredibly peaceful. It sounded just like the sort of music he would have expected from a game like this. He watched as Emmet discovered a village lying just beyond the mountains, which he quickly looted for supplies (much to Bad Cop’s chagrin). As time went on, Emmet ended up building a small wooden house at the edge of the village for himself, setting up what he needed before beginning on making the house more elaborate.

After perhaps an hour and a half of playing, Emmet saved his game slot and exited his game, passing the remote over to Bad Cop. “Okay, your turn!”

The officer took hold of the remote and started up a new game file, leaving his game settings as the defaults before loading up the game. When his world loaded up, he found himself in a large, grassy field, a few trees scattered around. A group of farm animals ambled around to the east and almost immediately to the south of his spawn point was a huge ravine. He found himself smirking a little bit as Emmet informed him that ravines were excellent spots to find useful resources and that he was therefore rather jealous that Bad Cop had discovered one on his first try. It took the officer a bit of time to get used to the controls (and to get used to fighting the enemies that spawned during the night), but by the second hour, he’d gotten himself set up with a simple stone house, plenty of resources and tools and was even starting on getting a pen set up for some of the farm animals he’d found wandering around near his spawn point.

Emmet would switch between saying nothing for long periods of time, and rattling off lots of pointers, tips and other relevant information as Bad Cop played. For the majority of the time, Bad Cop merely listened to what Emmet had to say, sometimes asking questions as Emmet relayed useful gaming hints to him. It was clear that Emmet had played a great deal of this game and knew most, if not all, of the ins-and-outs of the way the game worked. He knew how to construct various types of structures, including those with moving parts, where to find certain resources and what was needed to craft certain equipment.

After several hours of playing, Bad Cop eventually had to throw in the towel and stop. Emmet was still reeling off lists of facts and trivia about the game but cut off when Bad Cop raised a hand. “Yer game is very good, lad, but it’s starting to give me a headache. I think I’m gonna call it quits fer now, alright?”  
  
“Oh, er, yeah that’s - that’s fine!” Emmet nodded. “We’ve been playing for like, four hours now so yeah.” 

“Has it really been that long?!” Bad Cop baulked.

Emmet giggled a little and nodded. “Yep! It’s really late, and I gotta get up for work tomorrow.”

“Shite, alright.” Bad Cop stood up from the couch and stretched, most of the vertebrae in his spine cracking in the process. That earned him a grimace from the construction worker, which only made Bad Cop chuckle. “Age is catching up to us faster than we thought lad.”

“I didn’t think you guys were _that_ old. You don’t look a day over twenty-five!”   
  
“Is that so?” Bad Cop smirked.

Emmet blushed a little bit. “I mean, yeah. I guess it’s kinda hard to tell if you’ve got those glasses on all the time, but you don’t seem that old to me!”

“Yer just sayin’ that ta be nice,” Bad Cop chided lightly. “Now go on, ye use the bathroom first seein’ as ye’ve got work tomorrow.”  
  
“Right, I’ll see you guys in a bit.” Emmet nodded and stood up, collecting some pyjamas from his bedroom before heading into the bathroom.

The moment that Emmet disappeared, Bad Cop let out a heavy sigh and sunk back against the couch, pushing his sunglasses up to rub a hand over his face. He had to admit, he admired Emmet’s constant optimism and honestly wished he could share at least half of it. It was draining, however, to see the lad so chipper and enthusiastic about everything. It almost felt as though Emmet sucked the energy out of those around him to fuel his own. Glancing around the apartment, Bad Cop looked at the shelves full of thank-you cards and gifts from the ones Emmet had helped save. He’d stopped thinking about them after the first few days of living here, but something Emmet said kept buzzing through his mind.

_“I never really interacted with enough people to figure out who I was attracted to.”_

Something about the way Emmet had said that left an uneasy feeling in Bad Cop’s stomach. Emmet had been smiling when he’d said that. At least, his _mouth_ had been smiling. His eyes were empty, distant, almost _sad._ Bad Cop got up from the couch, heading over to the closest shelf. Nudging aside some of the cards, he found that hardly anything else sat on those shelves. A few small ornaments, but no photographs. In fact, the only framed photo Emmet had on his shelves was one of him with his potted plant (Planty? Wow, that was an original name). Bad Cop found himself feeling almost _sorry_ for Emmet. Clearly, the guy didn’t have anybody other than the cops in his life.

The memories of that horrid interrogation came flooding back to him.

 

_Tears pooled in Emmet’s eyes as he watched as, one by one, those he considered friends were asked about him. Time and time again, nobody seemed to recognise him, and the pitiful few that did clearly didn’t know anything about him. They knew his name, at most. Even the ones he (tried to) talk to on a daily basis hardly knew who he was. It was no wonder, really, why they knew so little about him; not a single one of them had ever returned the gesture when Emmet tried to start conversation with them. Pretty much everybody just ignored him._

_Bad Cop watched through narrowed eyes as he replayed the footage he’d shot earlier while asking Emmet’s coworkers, neighbours, acquaintances if they knew anything about him. He watched as Emmet’s lower lip trembled when their responses were heard._

_“Wait does he work with us?”_   
  
_“He’s just sort of a - y’know, blank slate I guess.”_   
_  
“We’ve all got something that makes us something, and Emmet is… nothing.”_

_Bad Cop had turned off the footage at that point, figuring Emmet had heard enough. When the audio stopped, a quiet sigh was the only thing to break the silence._

_“See…?” Emmet had asked in a voice hardly more than a whisper. “I told you I was a nobody.”_

 

Bad Cop felt guilt wash over him like a flood when he remembered what he’d almost done to Emmet just after that interview. He’d dragged Emmet off to the Melting Chamber in an attempt to physically _melt_ that Piece straight off his back. Had Lucy (or Wyldstyle or Dark Storm or whatever her name was these days) not broken into the building and saved him, Emmet would have been killed.   
  
Part of Bad Cop suspected Emmet might not have cared if that happened.

The thought was so terrible that Bad Cop had to restrain himself from rushing over and hugging Emmet tightly once he came out of the bathroom, dressed in flannel pyjamas with a towel around his shoulders to catch the water dripping from his hair. Bad Cop simply slipped into the bathroom once Emmet had finished in order to take his own shower. By the time he was done, Emmet’s bedroom door was shut and faint snores could be heard coming from the other side. Bad Cop took it upon himself to clear up and turn the lights off before heading to his own bedroom.

 _You have to talk to him, you know,_ Good Cop’s voice murmured from the back of Bad Cop’s head as he lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“Yeah, I know,” the sterner cop whispered. “Not now, though. Maybe after the lad gets home from work tomorrow.”

_Just make sure you’re gentle, okay? You know how sensitive he is._

“Y’know, I’m not great at all this emotional stuff. Ye would do a much better job.”

 _I can’t face him right now. Ye know I can’t. Look, we’ll think over this tomorrow while the lad’s at work and ye can talk to him when he’s home, okay?_   
  
“Alright…” Bad Cop grumbled, slipping his glasses off and setting them on the bedside table “Night.” 

_Goodnight._

Bad Cop still didn’t feel particularly confident in talking to Emmet about the situation regarding his so-called “friends”, but if his brother wasn’t fit enough to talk to Emmet directly, Bad Cop would have to do it himself. As long as he wasn’t too blunt, things would be fine.

Right?


End file.
